Vamana Purana — Skanda Slays Taraka & Mahisha, Shloka 106
Skanda’s Svastyayana and the Slaying of Taraka and Mahisha
अथोवाच हरिः स्कन्दं प्रष्टुमर्हसि पर्वतम् यो ऽयं वचक्ष्यति पूर्वं क्रौञ्चमभ्येत्य पावकिः पप्रच्छाद्रिमिदं केन कृतं पूर्वं प्रदक्षिणम्
athovāca hariḥ skandaṃ praṣṭumarhasi parvatam yo 'yaṃ vacakṣyati pūrvaṃ krauñcamabhyetya pāvakiḥ papracchādrimidaṃ kena kṛtaṃ pūrvaṃ pradakṣiṇam
Entonces Hari (Viṣṇu) dijo a Skanda: «Debes preguntar a la montaña. Pues antes Pāvaki (Agni), al acercarse a Krauñca, preguntó a ese monte: “¿Por quién fue realizada primero esta pradakṣiṇā?”»
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FAQs
Purāṇic tīrtha-literature frequently personifies geography: mountains, rivers, and forests are enduring witnesses of primordial events. Asking Krauñca establishes the authority of local ritual custom (ācāra) as rooted in the landscape’s own memory.
The text frames pradakṣiṇā not merely as a generic rite but as a practice with a specific sacred precedent. Identifying the ‘first performer’ functions like a charter-myth: it legitimizes the rite at that site and links present pilgrimage behavior to a divine or heroic prototype.
Pāvaki is a common epithet of Agni (‘purifier’). Agni is central to consecration and ritual efficacy; his inquiry underscores that pradakṣiṇā is not only devotional but also ritually potent, worthy of being traced to an original authoritative act.